EEOC sues Texas trucking company for firing older drivers
Age isn’t just a number in a federal discrimination case involving a Texas trucking company.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against Fat and Broke Inc., operating as Gamer Logistics, for violating federal law when it fired and refused to hire a class of older drivers and applicants for driver positions because of their age.
In March 2024, Gamer Logistics fired a 69-year-old driver because the company’s new liability insurance policy did not cover drivers older than 65, according to the lawsuit. This employee had worked for Gamer Logistics for 14 years.
Additionally, the EEOC lawsuit claims the company refused to hire a 68-year-old applicant for a driving position because of his age.
Both individuals held commercial driver’s licenses and met the physical requirements to operate commercial motor vehicles, according to the lawsuit.
“Employers are ultimately responsible for their own hiring, firing and conditions of employment,” EEOC Dallas District Office Director Travis Nicholson said. “They cannot escape liability for evident age-based employment decisions just because another private party, such as an insurance company, imposes an age-based restriction.”
The EEOC also claims Gamer Logistics excluded a class of employees and job applicants from driver positions because of age and that it imposed age-discriminatory medical screening conditions for employing older drivers.
“It is well documented that the American workforce is aging,” EEOC Acting Regional Attorney Ronald L. Phillips said. “Workers in their mid-to-late 60s, 70s and beyond continue sharing their valuable skills and experience as fewer new workers are entering our labor market. Accordingly, older workers increasingly provide the essential engine that drives our economy forward.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Texas and was initiated by the EEOC’s Dallas District Office, which has jurisdiction in a portion of Texas as well as parts of southern New Mexico.
On its website, Gamer Logistics lists office locations in Texas, Indiana and Mexico.
“We can neither tolerate nor afford to permit industry to commit age-discriminatory employment practices,” Phillips said. “This conduct is not only wrong but also harmful to our national economy.” LL